It Came From The Matrix

Our group is finished with collecting our media sources: The Yellow Pill, Blood Brothers, Jeffty Is Five, and The Sixth Finger. Now we are moving on to the 'artefacts', projects based on these stories.

Before I talk about my planned contribution, I will share more of my thoughts on what we've read and watched. For summaries of these stories, you can go to the Warning! Foreign Matter Detected blog page.

The Yellow Pill by Rog Phillips was the first story my group and I read. I found this story to be interesting, so I chose it for the subject of my artefact. I am planning on drawing an animated movie cover and concept art for a fictional adaptation.

My least favourite was Blood Brothers, an episode from the rebooted Outer Limits. It's not because I disliked the story, in this case the presentation made it difficult to engage? I don't know if it's appropriate to blame the writers or the actors, as I could just be outside of the target audience. It feels odd though. I have experienced the likes of Dune, Twin Peaks, and Aeon Flux, and I had no problem getting into their worlds strange and/or unfamiliar as they were. Maybe I process fantasy better than reality.

Having autism greatly hampers my social abilities, hence I've spent a majority of my eighteen years building and inhabiting my own world. While I still don't know what I want to do after high school, I definitely know what interests me and what doesn't. Blood Brothers, while not a painful experience, also wasn't appealing to me.

Moving on...

Of all the short stories that I've read in Science Fiction, three of them were by Harlan Ellison, including Jeffty Is Five. I enjoy how he writes. It feels genuine, as if some one is physically there telling the story. He creates unique descriptions and he can also be humorous. There isn't any humour in Jeffty however.

Lastly, our group previewed the original Outer Limits with The Sixth Finger. Gwyllm's demand for books still amuses me. "Arrgh, give me all the books!" The actor who portrayed him did a great job, I think. I wouldn't have known the character's actual name if I hadn't looked the episode up. And I'd still be calling Professor Mathers 'Doctor Grump'. Almost like how I dubbed the AT-STs 'chicken walkers', except they will always go by that name in my mind. :D

Now to share my project idea, I want to draw an animated movie cover and concept art for a fictional adaptation of The Yellow Pill. I've collected and printed out web images to use as my references, and made some very rough sketch. Today, I'm going lay out my concept for the cover.

Hi ho, hi ho, off to work I'll go! I've posted a link to the intro of the video game adaptation of I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream down below. Ellison worked with another writer on the story and dialogue, and he provides the voice of AM. It's amazing.

Last week was devoted to wrapping up the first marking period project. I'm not going to comment much upon then, other than that I made some blunders.

I am now in a new group covering 'Mad Scientists and Mutant Children', or simply crazy science projects and those affected by them or people capable of atypical things for a somewhat non-fantastical reason. Probably my top favorite area of science fiction, because the stories often have more 'human' aspects, searching the mind, relationships, etc. I think most super hero stuff falls under this category too. Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider, Bruce Banner was hit with gamma rays, Tony Stark made a battle suit..

This time around is weird because I don't really know what I'm doing. Last time there was definite leadership, I mean, I'm not used to directing other people. I stay in a bubble and do what I'm needed to do.

Yesterday, as a class, we watch the Twilight Zone episode "It's a Good Life". A six year old has reality warping powers and dictates his entire world and scares all the adults witless. Fun.

My group and I began to watch The Outer Limits episode 'Blood Brothers', from the nineties reboot. I've never seen the show before but it's like Twilight Zone but more science fiction oriented. Harlan Ellison wrote a couple of the original series episodes.

So far in Blood Brothers, Spencer and Michael Kemp are two brothers, whose mother had Huntington's disease. Michael tested negative, while Spencer has not been tested. They are also working together on a cure for cancer, and they may not like each other that much.

Let's play a little game. There are three links down below. Two of them are related to mad science, and one is not. Good luck! ;)

I'll admit that I was on my own for most of it. (Maybe not a good idea) I added commentary to my creative Science Fiction notes. The amount of words is definitely over 750, but I am somewhat unsure as to whether it counts.

I read Johnny Mnemonic on my own. The site it was on, I believe, had some errors that affected the literacy. Misspellings, weird sentences. It was a good story though. The main character Johnny had cybernetic surgery so he's now a human hard drive, and he gets tangled up with the Yakuza, a Japanese gang (similar to the Mafia) that practically owns the world. That's the simple way to put it. There are a lot of weird details within.

Today, our group is going to make our Prezi. I'm not sure how it's going to work exactly, but I'll just roll with it.

Last night, I watched the trailer for Escape From New York.
It is 1997. (This was made in 1981, so...) The entire city of New York, including Manhattan Island, has become a walled maximum security prison. The president's plane crashes inside and the government sends in Snake Plissken, master criminal and bonafide buttkicker, to get him out.
​This is the film that inspired Metal Gear, and it looks awesome. I want to watch it. Where can I find it?

Johnny Mnemonic was adapted into a movie as well. Two dystopian movie trailers coming right up!

Escape is first, followed by Johnny. Both films are 'R' rated, so we obviously wouldn't be able to watch them in class.

My group has read I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. We've taken notes on it and are still in the process of discerning elements of sci-fi within it.

We watched another episode of Twilight Zone, To Serve Man, featuring cannibal aliens disguised as benevolent 'Santa Clauses', to use the narrator's term.

I did figure out something to write. One of my bad habits is putting 'boxes' around my thinking and creativity. I often am outside of the box in life, yet I have this compulsion to cage parts of myself. Why is a rather long, unfinished story.

Mr. Schoenborn shared a writing prompt with two trainees shoved into a stargate with little to no explanation. I followed along for a while, then some ideas began to come. Maybe this 'stargate' is actually a portal to a different reality. The two trainees are a pair of friends visiting a television studio. An intelligence agency not affiliated with the government stalking them. Ray guns, hover boards, mullets?!
Yes, they land in an alternate 1985, a retro-futuristic empire.

Why 1985? Tribute and reference reasons, and I like the eighties. There are elements within the decade that could easily be adapted to a future setting. Like the wild fashions and animatronics... except that last one could be mistaken for a FNAF rip-off. Or, now that I think of it, more likely a Westworld rip off. (Link to the trailer is above the yellow phone)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvD6ilfrBw8

*briiiiing* *briiiiing* *briiiiing*
I would answer that if I were you-ooo-ooo-ooo.

I believe we have begun to enter the essence of this class, if we haven't already.

On Wednesday, we separated into groups covering different topics within science fiction. The group I am in is covering 'Blurred Boundaries Between Man and Machine'. Our first assignment was to read "Repent Harlequin!" said The TickTockMan and explain how it fit the 3+ elements of sci-fi.

Harlequin takes place in a future society operated by time and punctuality to the extreme. One of the most mind boggling instances is the ability to cut people's life. Five minutes late? Your lifespan is now cut by five minutes. Perpetually late? Boom! You're dead.

The Master Timekeeper, known by the public as the Tick-Tock Man, runs the show. Against him and the status quo, is the Harlequin, a character who pulls all sorts of tricks and shenanigans to get everything off schedule.

I finished The Quantum Rose yesterday. It was a good story, and the questionable parts died down towards the second half of the book. I also recorded my book chat for it, which may not be that great. :/

The next book I've chosen for my independent reading is The Ship That Sings. It's about a girl who becomes a kind of robot? She was born crippled, so her brain was put inside of a metal 'shell' with wheels. Fits perfectly with the Man/Machine theme.

Hopefully, my group and I will be able to watch A.I, Artificial Intelligence. There were some technical issues in the attempts to play it. I already know a bit about it, but I've never seen it before. For starters, I'm going to watch the trailer. Link is below.

Science Fiction, the class, has been a positive experience so far. One of the projects we did was the creation of this very Weebly site where we post our various works. The 'defining sci-fi' segment on the homepage, however, hit me with a sledgehammer of panic. I'd never thought that deeply about my reasoning to be in this class. It's science fiction; lasers, robots, clones, cool gadgets, mutants, aliens, and time travel. I just assumed that it would be cool.

Fortunately, with help from my mom, I eventually came up with something to type. Yeah! I am still curious about the other tabs though. What will those entail? There will be multi-media, from what I know.

For my independent reading book, I chose The Quantum Rose. The protagonist Kamoj (ka-moge) Argali is the governor of a struggling province on the planet Balumil. To ensure the welfare of her people, she must marry Jax of Ironbridge but then Havyrl Lionstar, the mysterious lodger of the Quartz Palace, decides to tie the knot with her. Where I last read, Kamoj is at the palace and getting to know Vyrl.

The technology and the world building in this novel is excellent. However, they are slightly overshadowed by certain other elements. I won't give any details, though I consider said elements to be amusing. I had to bite my tongue at one part to keep from busting out laughing. In the back of my mind I wonder just how 'educational' this novel is as far as science fiction goes.

Before I end this post, I would like to share The Animatrix trailer with you. The film contains a series of animated shorts based upon the Matrix trilogy. One of the shorts, Matriculated was directed and written by Peter Chung, the creator of Aeon Flux, one of my favourite shows.However, since Aeon Flux is not school appropriate, I believe The Animatrix is a better substitute. The link to the trailer is at the bottom of this post.

What will the next week bring? What tales will we read or watch? To what places will we embark? Only time can tell.